Chapter 141 Dinner at Ming Fu

After tidying up his notes, Pei Qian walked out of the office.

"Everyone, put down whatever you're working on."

"We're having dinner at Ming Fu Family Banquet in the city at four o'clock. The location has been sent to the group chat. The company car can take some of you, and the rest can team up and take a taxi. Keep the receipts."

Pei Qian finished speaking, but the response from the crowd was lukewarm.

Hao Yun held his forehead, feeling a deep headache.

President Pei was disturbing everyone's work again!

He looked at his watch. It was only a little after three o'clock, and the afternoon's work had just started!

They couldn't work overtime on weekends, and they were already struggling to get everything done. But President Pei always liked to find ways to shorten everyone's working hours. Shortening it by an hour today, and then two hours tomorrow…

If this continued, how would they ever get their work done!

Even though everyone was rushing to start working as soon as they got to work, not daring to waste a minute, it still couldn't stop President Pei from having these spur-of-the-moment activities.

Like now, completely unexpected.

So, many people didn't have time to respond, and just typed on their keyboards faster and harder, as if venting their anger.

Pei Qian frowned slightly.

These people had serious problems with their thinking!

Even though we have dinner together every now and then, that's not an excuse for you to work so hard!

If you're not enthusiastic about eating, there's something wrong with your thinking.

Pei Qian cleared his throat twice, "You have five minutes to save your files, and then gather downstairs.

"Xiao Tang, cut the power on time in five minutes!"

Tang Yishu quickly stood up, "Ah, okay."

Everyone: "..."

A flurry of frantic file-saving.

...

At four o'clock, the crowd gradually arrived at Ming Fu Family Banquet.

This high-end restaurant wasn't located in the core business district of Jingzhou, but it wasn't too far off.

It was near the Global World Center, but not inside it, probably because the mall couldn't find such a large space.

It was a three-story detached building, and the exterior had been decorated in a classic Chinese style, with red bricks and gray tiles, looking quite impressive.

Pei Qian arrived inside Ming Fu Family Banquet and found that President Li was already there.

"President Pei! Welcome, welcome."

"President Li, I hope you've been well."

The two greeted each other and exchanged pleasantries for a while.

President Li looked at the large group of people behind Pei Qian, "Everyone, please come in, President Pei has booked the whole place, sit wherever you like!"

Seeing that President Pei had brought so many people, Li Shi was very touched.

Even though he had given a 30% discount, making basically no profit on this meal, President Pei was supporting him as a good friend, and that in itself was a great honor!

Li Shi had originally thought that President Pei's offer to support him was just a few polite words.

After all, business is business. As soon as this Ming Fu Family Banquet opened, it became a competitor to Wuming Restaurant. President Pei might say he was supporting him, but who knew what he really thought?

But now, seeing that he had even arranged the company dinner here, this was not just simple support, this was truly kind!

Wouldn't Ming Yun Private Kitchen be better for a dinner?

Li Shi knew in his heart that even if Ming Fu Family Banquet could crush other restaurants in Jingzhou, it was still a kid brother compared to Ming Yun Private Kitchen.

President Pei coming here to eat was a bit of a condescension, what a great honor he was giving him!

Therefore, Li Shi quickly instructed the store manager and waiters to treat them warmly, and not to neglect them in any way.

After taking a seat, Pei Qian looked around.

He had to say, the decoration was quite elaborate, and it was obvious that a lot of effort and money had been put into it.

The tables, chairs, tableware, decorations, etc., all exuded a classic Chinese style, with a sense of quality.

But Pei Qian flipped through the menu and found that it only offered Chinese food, not as diverse as Ming Yun Private Kitchen.

Thinking about it carefully, it was easy to understand, because the two restaurants both claimed to offer high-end dining, but they actually chose different routes.

Li Shi and Wang Peng were very clear that the best way to open a high-end restaurant was to cooperate with Wuming Restaurant.

Because Wuming Restaurant's reputation had already been established, and everyone was more accepting of it. Even if President Pei didn't contribute money or manpower, just lending his name would be a great help.

But President Pei had refused, so naturally they could only do it themselves.

Completely copy the Wuming Restaurant model?

Probably not reliable.

Because copying the Wuming Restaurant model would easily lead to being labeled as a "copycat," and such a label would be fatal for a high-end restaurant.

Once the reputation collapsed and criticism arose, wealthy people would no longer recognize the brand, and the high-end route would be completely finished.

Li Shi and Wang Peng weren't stupid, they wouldn't do something like that.

So, they could only take the conventional high-end dining route.

Open in a bustling area with a lot of foot traffic and convenient transportation, with a large venue, not like Wuming Restaurant where you have to make a reservation in advance.

Of course, they also couldn't change the arrangement of the private rooms before each meal, so the dining environment couldn't be as elaborate.

The advantage was that the place was large enough, and most of the dishes could be kept in stock.

It wasn't as high-end as Ming Yun Private Kitchen, but the prices of the dishes were also lowered accordingly. When you couldn't get a reservation at Ming Yun Private Kitchen, eating here was still more upscale than Swan Lake Restaurant.

Soon, dishes were brought up one after another.

On the way, Pei Qian had already asked President Li for the menu in advance and arranged for Assistant Xin to order the dishes.

This would save time, so they could start eating directly when they arrived, and avoid delaying getting off work.

Pei Qian didn't have any specific requirements for the dishes, he just hoped that they would order more hard dishes (expensive dishes).

Hard dishes often meant they were more expensive.

Pei Qian didn't care what they actually ate for this meal. After all, he had already eaten the best things at Ming Yun Private Kitchen. This time, he was mainly here to spend more money.

"Come on, everyone, eat quickly, and then go back and rest."

Pei Qian was the first to pick up his chopsticks and started eating silently, so there wouldn't be any extra steps.

Li Shi smiled and came to Pei Qian's table, "How is it, President Pei, is the taste to your liking?"

Pei Qian nodded and said vaguely, "Yes, it's okay!"

He wasn't very good at lying. The dishes here were indeed somewhat different compared to Ming Yun Private Kitchen, but they were still better than Swan Lake Restaurant.

But Swan Lake Restaurant had an advantage, which was that it was mostly a buffet with a lot of seafood, so overall it was more affordable than here.

But for Pei Qian, this was a negative point.

Li Shi knew in his heart what the level of the dishes here was like. President Pei ate at Wuming Restaurant every day, and he could still give the dishes here an "okay" rating, which was already a great honor.

Tang Yishu was also sitting with the others in the administration group, cautiously picking up dishes little by little and eating in small bites.

...

Li Shi went to the kitchen, wanting to give everyone a little encouragement.

But before he even entered the kitchen, he heard a series of crisp sounds of "bang, bang, bang" coming from inside.

"Ouch!"

"I fell, the floor is too slippery!"

"Hurry up and sweep up the pieces!"

Li Shi frowned. As soon as he entered the kitchen, he saw broken plates all over the floor, and two employees were frantically sweeping with brooms.

Li Shi was a little dizzy, "What's going on?"

A waiter quickly bowed and apologized, "I'm sorry, President Li! The floor was too slippery, and I accidentally fell and broke a few dirty plates that I had just collected..."

Li Shi was a little speechless. He looked and saw that there was a puddle of water on the kitchen floor, left over from who knew when, and it was indeed easy to slip.

"It's okay, hurry up and clean it up."

"Think of it positively, this can be considered finding a safety hazard."

"Tomorrow morning, you guys hurry up and buy anti-slip agents and anti-slip mats."

Just as Li Shi finished speaking, he saw the wok next to him suddenly burst into flames.

This was obviously not some high-end cooking technique, but a mistake by the chef.

"Quick, quick, fire extinguisher!!"

Someone next to him frantically handed over a fire extinguisher. The fire was quickly extinguished, but a pot of food was completely burned, and they could only pour it out and redo it.

Li Shi said with a black face, "The fire extinguisher is too far away, that's also a hidden danger."

Although they had indeed discovered many safety hazards, it was also very painful!

Li Shi was a little helpless, muttering in a low voice, "Could it be because I didn't look at the auspicious day when I opened the business?"

"Why don't other people's restaurants seem to have these problems..."

"Calm down, calm down, this should just be a coincidence."

...

That night, a little after 10 o'clock.

After seeing off the last wave of guests, the store manager of Ming Fu Family Banquet was still directing the waiters to clean up the mess.

Li Shi just found a seat and sat down, feeling sincerely tired.

Today was the second day of the opening, the most important time.

However, problems kept occurring!

Although none of them were major safety hazards, just breaking a few plates or burning a pot of food, they greatly slowed down the speed of serving dishes.

Several tables of guests waited too long for the dishes, were very dissatisfied, and the store manager personally came forward to say good things and give discounts, which finally managed to salvage some of the situation.

But, it was hard to say how these people would evaluate their restaurant after they went back.

It was okay when President Pei booked the whole place, because they ate relatively early and had ordered the menu in advance, so when President Pei and the others arrived, a batch of dishes had already been prepared. They didn't even notice that some of the later dishes were served slowly.

When other guests came to eat in the evening, the situation was exposed without reservation.

Li Shi was a little depressed, was opening a restaurant really this difficult?

The safety standards in my restaurant are already very high compared to those ordinary restaurants, so why are so many things still happening?

But this couldn't be blamed on others, because the so-called safety hazards were just things that had a certain probability of happening.

For example, if a puddle of water was accidentally spilled on the ground, sometimes you could walk past it without incident, and sometimes you would happen to slip and spill the dishes you were about to serve all over the ground.

It could only be said that the safety awareness was not strong enough!

Li Shi was a little melancholy, and he increasingly felt that President Pei's Ming Yun Private Kitchen was not simple.

The environment was elaborate, the timing of serving dishes was extremely accurate, the service was meticulous…

This high-end dining was really not as simple as he imagined!

He didn't know how much effort President Pei had put into Ming Yun Private Kitchen to achieve the level it was at now!